The present invention relates to data serialization in general and, in particular, to efficiently and reliably serializing large data sets.
Data serialization is any type of procedure that translates a structured set of data objects, like a complex data structure, a graph, or a system state, into a serial stream of digital data. Serializing a complex data set may greatly reduce the storage size and overhead required to store and maintain dynamic data structures. Serialization is useful, for example, when a time-varying state of a system must be saved and then later restored (or “deserialized”) in its original form. Such procedures are often used to improve performance of distributed software applications or to capture transient system states in a persistent form that may be recovered at a later time.